Golden Knights rally to defeat Blackhawks, 5-4

CHICAGO — Reilly Smith has what Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant likes to call a “200-foot game.”

On Friday, Smith used about 140 of those feet to get the Knights a split on their Midwest road trip.

His breakaway goal with 6:07 to play broke a 4-4 third-period tie as the Golden Knights defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-4 in front of 21,933 at the United Center in what was a wild, end-to-end battle.

The win, the Knights’ 28th of their inaugural season, extended their lead in the Pacific Division to five points over second-place Los Angeles. The Knights, who have 58 points, reach the season’s halfway point Sunday when they face the New York Rangers at T-Mobile Arena.

On the game-winner, Smith poke-checked the puck away from defenseman Connor Murphy and was off to the races. He beat Chicago goaltender Jeff Glass over his right shoulder for his 11th goal.

“I saw he was pinching in and I was able to get to the puck first and go,” Smith said of his heads-up play that was the result of him being responsible in his half of the ice and being in position to make such a move.

Gallant wasn’t surprised.

“That’s Reilly Smith,” Gallant said. “He’s been doing that his whole career. He was the same way when I had him in Florida, always coming back and helping out his D. It was a great play by (Smith).”

The Knights had squandered leads of 2-0 and 3-1 and found themselves trailing 4-3 early in the third period when Jonathan Toews’ goal 30 seconds in put the Blackhawks ahead for the first time. Cody Eakin came back for the Knights, tying the score 4-4 at the 5:53 mark. He converted in the slot for his sixth goal, taking a feed from David Perron.

“He’s such a clever player and so great with the puck,” Eakin said of Perron, who leads the team with 24 assists. “That goal seemed to give us a lift.”

Gallant had juggled his lines looking for a spark as he reunited Eakin with Perron and put Brendan Leipsic with Erik Haula and James Neal. Eakin and Perron had started the season on the same line, and Gallant’s move turned out to be the right one.

“You hope to get something good when you make those kind of changes,” he said. “I thought we were a little flat after Toews got them the lead, and David and Cody worked a nice play to get us even.

“Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It worked tonight.”

Malcolm Subban got the start in goal for the Knights. Despite allowing four goals in 32 shots, he played well enough to record his 11th victory.

The Knights had leads of 2-0 and 3-1, but the Blackhawks rallied to pull even late in the second period when Nick Schmaltz beat Subban with 53 seconds left in the period after William Karlsson had given the Knights a 3-1 lead with his 21st goal 5:54 into the period.

Alex Tuch and and Jonathan Marchessault staked the Knights to a 2-0 first-period lead 15:49 into the game, and the Knights set a franchise record for most shots in a period with 21 in the first. They had 43 shots overall.

But Vinnie Hinostroza cut the deficit to 2-1 with 1:59 left in the period in what would be a three-point night for him.

However, the Knights found their legs at just the right time, and Smith’s heroics allowed them to put Thursday’s 2-1 loss to St. Louis quickly behind them.

“We did a good job of managing our effort,” Eakin said. “You don’t want to lose two in a row.”

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter.